Zulu proverb also known as “Isaga” is one of the rich cultural heritage of the Zulu people. The Isaga offers understanding, wisdom, and guidance to individuals and the Zulu communities. They are often used to express important values, beliefs, and ideas in concise and memorable ways, and passed down through generations as a means of preserving cultural heritage.
Aside from its powerful quotes, the Zulu people are the largest ethnic group in South Africa, who refer to themselves as the “People of the heavens”. Their origin can be traced to the Nguni ethnic group that belongs to the branch of southern Bantu. They also share certain cultural similarities with the Swazi and the Xhosa. The people are known for their great fighting spirit, and excellent craftsmanship especially beading and weaving.
Zulu Proverbs on Love, Relationships, and Marriage
1. One who marries for love alone will have bad days but good nights.
2. Do not treat your loved one like a swinging door: you are fond of it, but you push it back and forth.
3. He who loves, loves you with your dirt.
4. The quarrel of lovers is the renewal of love.
5. One who loves the vase also loves what is inside.
6. Don’t try to make someone hate the person he loves. For he will go on loving but will hate you.
7. Love doesn’t rely on physical features.
8. If the full moon loves you why worry about stars.
9. Love like rain does not choose the grass on which it falls.
10. Let your love be like the misty rain coming softly but flooding the river.
11. Getting married is like putting a snake in your pocket.
12. You are in a hurry to plant, where has it been raining?
13. A good thing is pulled both ways.
14. The cry of a bird that looks down at its own feet.
15. When a person is not forgotten, they are not killed.
16. The brightness of a nation does not depend on the death of one person.
17. A person is a person because of other people.
18. Loving someone who is not of your age causes strife
Zulu Proverbs on Life and Death
19. The impatient person eats goat; the one who hesitates eats beef.
20. Children are like plant offshoots that ever go forward.
21. A nice plate is not long eaten off.
22. When you become wise of the healer, also become wise of the sickness.
23. No man can perfectly empty a boy with a ladle.
24. Orphans mourn for each other.
25. One short sleep past, we wake eternally, death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
26. The wrong-headed fool who refuses counsel will come to grief.
27. Flowers are born, and they wither.
28. The child’s sack is not thrown away after the death of the child.
29. As great birds die, the eggs rot.
30. When you shoot a zebra in the black stripe, the white dies; shoot it in the white, and the black dies.
31. No death is different.
32. When you become wise of the healer, also become wise of the sickness.
33. The nice fig is often full of worms
34. Death leaves a heartache no one can heal; love leaves a memory no one can steal.
35. There is no hillside without a grave.
36. He who has a milking pail should not be obliged to milk on the ground
37. The greatest death is laughter.
38. Even the maid has a family.
39. To grow is to see things.
40. When you climb the mountain and reach the top, do not forget the branches and shrubs that help your footing.
41. The day is worked while it is still fresh.
42. When there is honey, there are bound to be ants.
43. Hope does not kill; I shall; I have the hope of getting what I seek another day.
44. The one who makes the law doesn’t know the law.
45. The owl eats its eye, and the one with a misty eye dies of hunger.
46. The house of the bold talker lets in the rain, but that of the man with the little throat may be covered with mucus.
Proverbs on Wealth, Money, and Success
47. A rolling stone gathers no moss.
48. A leopard eats alone.
49. The word of the poor man is allowed afterward.
50. Height is not reached in a hurry.
51. The day is worked while it is still fresh.
52. One fly cannot provide for another.
53. The sitter in one place eats the skin scrapings.
54. Plenty sits still, while Hunger is a wanderer.
55. Time passes quickly.
56. A man’s beauty is in his cattle.
57. Time moves forward.
58. Growing up is difficult.
59. Happiness is in contentment.
60. Bad company brings back sins.
61. A leopard eats alone.
62. Power is in strength.
63. Death ends the journey.
64. African ropes tie the mountain.
See Also: African Proverbs: 100 Best And Their Deep Meanings
Zulu Proverbs on Family and Tradition
65. The farting of the head of the homestead is ignored by the commoner.
66. There is no snake that forgets its home.
67. The family circle eats and the lizard basks in the sun.
68. Women who bear children must exist in Zulu land only.
69. Those that plan without the help of the spirit must plan again.
70. Respect is given in two ways.
71. A family war is never entered.
72. The calf of the wild buck leaps where its mother has leaped.
73. The cow licks the one that licks her.
74. The finest calf is liked by its mother.
75. The stick has no kraal.
Proverbs on Wisdom
76. The winged termite is not by its head as soon as it appears.
77. A cow is milked by the one who knows it.
78. Once you have found your first diamond, you will never give up looking.
79. The Kafir-finch stands by its own stick (perch).
80. He who has no intelligence is happy with it.
81. Strike an enemy once and for all. Let him cease to exist as a tribe, or he will live to fly in your throat again.
82. A river is filled with its tributaries.
83. The one behind is the one ahead
84. The fool who owns an ox is seldom recognized as a fool.
85. Never leave an enemy standing.
86. By pounding the dough the bread will rise.
87. One who loves the vase also loves what is inside.
88. Ask for advice from those with more experience.
89. Learning never ends; it is the days that end.
90. Guessing breeds suspicion.
91. There is no sun that sets without its own affairs.
Other Proverbs on Different Subject Matters
92. There is no elephant that finds its trunk too heavy.
93. The house of the bold talker lets in the rain, but that of the man with the little throat may be covered with mucus from the throat.
94. I am sitting upon a hot hoe-iron.
95. The spittle has returned to the chest.
96. There is no partridge that scratches for another.
97. The body is felt by its owner.
98. Once hurt (the eye), it is always in fear.
99. A sheep kills an elephant.
100. There is no river that does not have its own sound.
